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Drone Attack On Sevastopol
This morning at 4:20 local time the Russian fleet in the Crimean port of Sevastopol was attacked by nine unmanned aerial vehicles and seven autonomous maritime drones. Earlier a maritime drone that had run aground in Crimea and had been found and pictured.
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During today's attack a large U.S. drone had flown circles south of Crimea. It likely relayed data from and to the drones.
The maritime drones are British and Russia alleges that British specialists had trained the Ukrainian navy in using them. It also says that British soldiers were involved in the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline.
The Ukrainians published two videos shot by the maritime drones while attacking. One of the video shows extensive gun fire impacts near the drone from a Russian helicopter that is attacking it.
The Russians say that all the aerial drones and 4 of 7 maritime drones were defeated before they could caused damage. They also say that one mine seeking ship was damaged in the harbor. It is possible that the damage is greater than Russia admits.
As a consequence of the attack Russia declared that the deal which allowed for grain exports from Odessa has been suspended. That deal had already been in danger as the 'west' had not fulfilled its part of the deal which would have allowed for the export for Russian fertilizer to third parties.
I find it likely that Russia will take additional measures to punish the Ukrainian navy for the brazen attack. Additional attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure is another possibility.
Meanwhile all recent attempts by the Ukrainian army to penetrate the Russian held lines have failed. It is notable that these are now much smaller in size with just a battalion or in some cases just two companies in the lead.
It is now definitely mud season in Ukraine during which it is impossible to cross most farmland even on feet. This will hinder the attacking forces on both sides until winter sets in.
Those drone attacks on Russian ships. Like it or not, it’s a war. Either side is perfectly entitled to sink the other’s warships. But:-
1. How long can it go on being a partly undeclared war.
NATO satellites and planes are said to be helping Kiev air defence with target acquisition. Almost certainly true, that. NATO surveillance is of great value to the Kiev forces. The UK Rivet Joint dedicated electronic surveillance aircraft assisting. According to Ritter, and others, there are Polish corpses now found on the battlefield. Ritter speaks of units of “sheep-dipped” Polish soldiers being sent in.
Then there’s the NATO training and NATO technical assistance on the ground. Plus the supply of some fairly fancy NATO weaponry, as well as as much routine materiel as we can spare.
Then there’s the basing of aircraft outside Ukraine, presumably maintained by NATO and certainly supplied by NATO.
None of this will change the course of the war. But it leads to prolonging it. More getting killed both sides and particularly Ukrainians, for whom it sometimes seems as if it’s a mini-Verdun most days.
It also greatly increases the risk of escalation.
2. Then there’s the risk of acts of war, also seeming to be covertly assisted, that could be seriously dangerous. Never thought I’d ever see NATO assisted forces deliberately shelling a nuclear power station. Well, I’m seeing it now.
And all this talk of “dirty bombs” – is there anything in that? American and European advisers ought to be falling over themselves looking into that, and putting a stop to it if it turns out to be a real threat. Are they?
3. Over and above all that there’s the plain fact that the Western populations, particularly in Europe, are entirely on board with the story our politicians and media are giving us on this war.
I’ve never seen anything like it. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria – in all those cases there were plenty of sceptics and many voices raised in opposition. Not all of us, not by a long chalk, but enough to act as at least some hindrance to the Washington neocons. More importantly, some of the European politicians were themselves sceptical to at least some degree, the German in particular I think, and that also must have acted as a brake.
Not this time round. It’s no exaggeration to state that it’s almost a patriotic duty to believe what we are told about this war by our politicians. It is only “Putin bots” who protest and such protest is akin to treason. Certainly in continental Europe there are voices raised in opposition, but only because this war will cost us dear, not because we in the West are in the wrong.
So too with those few authoritative voices heard opposing what the West is doing. General Lord Richards, for me the most authoritative and plain-spoken critic of this war, deplores the wanton sacrifice of our proxies and is right to do so; but I have not heard him say that we in the West provoked the war and that we ourselves are in the wrong in that respect. General Kujat, again the most authoritative critic I know of in Germany, also does not insist that the overall picture we have been given of this war is incorrect.
This is dangerous, this near universal acceptance of the picture painted by our politicians and media. The Kiev regime, in truth no more than a group of extremists living in the frenetic no holds barred atmosphere of the last days is the bunker, is transformed into a virtuous group of heroes. Zelensky, a dubious figure in reality, becomes and is frequently spoken of as the Ukraine’s Churchill. There is nothing they can do that will not be whitewashed by our media and, it seems, nothing they can do, however risky or deplorable, in which they will not be covertly assisted by us.
So we have a not so covert NATO/Russia war, a war in which nothing is off the table, and the Western public happy to cheer on whatever dubious actions Kiev or Kiev’s backers can dream up by way of retaliation or provocation as this war, inevitably, goes against them.
This is plain dangerous. I liked the limited and restricted aims of the SMO. I thought it would lead to the fewest casualties and the least harm to the civilian population of the old Ukraine. But given these dangerous circumstances set out above I believe it’s time for the Russians to end this thing in short order. Too risky not to.
Posted by: English Outsider | Oct 29 2022 19:51 utc | 64
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